Installing, locating or removing fasteners, washers, spacers, clips, assembly components or similar devices is often difficult, especially in hard to reach or orientate places. There are numerous standard threaded fasteners such as bolts, nuts and complimentary components, such as washers, used to assemble, locate and attach all kinds of parts on machines, household furnishings, buildings and the like. There are numerous other specialty fasteners, components and sub-assemblies that must be inserted in a particular order and position. Due to the virtually infinite mating orientations of components that must be fastened or inserted together it is often necessary to install a fastener or an assembly of fastener components in difficult to access or blind locations. Installing a fastener or an assembly of fastener components may be assisted by applying a sticky material (e.g., gum, spittle, double-sided tape, resin, and the like) between the backside of a fastener and a user's finger in an attempt to temporarily overcome gravity and carefully guide the fastener into position. This requires a significant amount of patience and balance and is not suitable for all installation locations. In blind situations the “feel” of the fastener making proper engagement is often required, confirming proper engagement. Further, this process is difficult when installing an assembly of fastener components because only the fastener itself is retained by the sticky material. Components often become misaligned, resulting in cross threading or the components falling and becoming lost or ending up in difficult to retrieve locations. In some cases, the loss of a fastener can be catastrophic such as when the fastener falls into a machine and latter becomes lodged in moving components.
In addition to the methods previously described, there are many specialized tools and accessories for installing fasteners in these situations. Such devices include special mechanical or magnetic gripping features. The tools themselves often interfere with easy alignment of the fastener and the mating thread or component feature thus making final assembly/disassembly difficult.
Magnetized sockets are known which provide some retaining force for ferromagnetic nuts, bolts and other fasteners. Magnetic inserts, such as the inserts disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,146,814 issued on Sep. 15, 1992 to Richard Vasichek (the '814 Patent), are known which may be placed inside non-magnetic sockets and provide a magnetic retaining force. These devices are not suitable for aluminum components, plastic components, and other non-ferromagnetic components.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,323,673 issued on Jun. 28, 1994 to Florence Martinez et al. (the '673 Patent) discloses a nut or bolt holder socket having a leg, beam, cam, or other mechanism positioned within the socket cavity for retaining a nut within the socket, thereby aiding the use in installing the nut in a hard to reach place.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,896,792 issued on Apr. 27, 1999 to Jon Hurt (the '792 Patent) discloses a thin, flexible plastic holder designed to retain a bolt in a socket by reducing the tolerance between the bolt head and the socket, creating a friction fit which holds the bolt within the socket. An enlarged head of the holder is placed between the bolt head and the socket and deformed therebetween as the bolt head is forced into the interior of the socket. A second enlarged head of the holder is deformed between the drive socket and a wrench drive fitting or extension in order to retain the holder.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,302,000 issued on Oct. 16, 2001 to James Smith (the '000 Patent) discloses a device for positioning nuts in cramped spaces. The '000 Patent device is a wire having a handle at a first end and a bend second end. The bent second end is arranged such that a nut may be placed within the bent section, held there and placed on a target bolt. The '000 Patent device does not provide any lateral support for the nut. The bent section merely loops around a portion of the perimeter of the nut.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,246,540 issued on Jul. 24, 2007 to Robert Rillera (the '540 Patent) discloses a fastener retaining device capable or retaining multiple nuts, bolts, and washers and starting installation of such joining elements via three extendable gripping prongs. The inside surfaces of the prongs contact and retain the joining elements and a desired torque may be applied via an attached handle. A lever on the handle allows the user to extend or retract the gripping prongs, causing the device to release or engage a joining element.
Given the foregoing, what is needed are devices which retain nuts, bolts, washers and assemblies thereof during installation, particularly in hard to reach places or in locations where it is difficult to maintain the alignment of such assemblies and experience the “feel” of proper engagement during installation. In particular, devices are needed which can, without magnets, retain and facilitate the installation of nuts, bolts, washers, spacers, other joining elements and assemblies thereof. Low profile devices and/or devices capable of providing support in more than one direction are also needed.